May 01, 2007

A globalization reading group

I concluded last night a reading group on globalization that a small band of mostly MPAID students have prevailed on me to hold. We met every two weeks to discuss a recent book. See this file for the list of books:Download globalization_reading_group.doc
I use the reading group as an opportunity to think of where the gaps in the literature are. One thing I have become convinced of is that we still lack a really good book on economic globalization. The students' reaction to the books we read is quite indicative of this. They found most of the books simplistic, criticized them roundly for their poor analytics and empirics (we must be doing something right in the MPAID program!), and in general thought the literature too ideological. But when I tried to sell them on my take, they were not exactly non-critical either. So I have got work to do too...

Thought it is probably too specific for a book group discussion, 'Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East' By Henry/SpringBorg is a great read on the Middle East angle, and presents perspectives that can be easily applied to much of the developing world.

Interesting if the books you "criticized...roundly" are those who were also written by those who supposedly know what they are talking about (Wolf, Stiglitz, Mishkin, and Easterly). What does this say about the state of the profession?

I'm not sure if this would exactly speak to the criticisms your students raise, but I think that Gavin Kitching's Seeking Social Justice Through Globablization is very well written, all about economic globalization (with a lot of discussion of the differential effects on industrial vs agricultural economies), and is sort of heterodox all around (very pro-free trade, very left wing). There's also a great chapter on derivatives.

I can recommend "The Power of Productivity" by William Lewis. He was the first director of Mckinsey & Co.'s Global Institute. It presents a systematic, sector-by-sector study of the economies for a dozen countries, some low income, some middle income, some high income. The book has been chastised as something worth of Cato or the Reagen administration, but I thought it was very balanced and relied heavily on good analytics. (The analytics are not included, but there are references to the specific Mckinsey reports that are available free online.) The sector-by-sector breakdown of individual economies is really beautiful and completely changed my understanding of economic growth and development.
Link on Google Books:http://books.google.com/books?id=J0WBRuv4vSAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+power+of+productivity

Dear Prof. Rodrik.
Kudos for your new blog. I've heard that your appearance in the blogosphere has caused true impact and the response from your fans has been more than enthusiastic, as a simple search in Amazon can confirm. ;)

People usually say :"Seeing is believing." http://www.tt88times.com
Each attempt has a corresponding gain, in part or obvious, or vague. At least we have the kind of satisfaction After I bought this watch ,in a sense,it means a great deal to me. http://www.fashionhairfu.com

I'd rather be a rich person in a poor country. It seems to me that regardless of how poor a nation may be, the rich members of society are extremely wealthy, and have little to envy about the position of their counterparts in other lands.

he still effective. However, often is not found the real cause, and was hard to social and economic whole body adjustment to normal, restore the "invisible hand" action. But can only rely on long-term drug maintenance, for example, currency falling dollar, for the United States, is a long-term drug. Broken medicine,http://www.mbt-usa.com/MBT

Many places and centers offer business and trade promotions to both buyers and supplier.What about the differences in skill intensities across industries? The job losses in the relatively unskilled-labor intensive battery industry should have little effect on the relatively skilled-labor intensive machinery sexshopsexyshopsexshop online